Joan Bakewell’s career as a Broadcaster and Journalist has spanned eight decades.
Her on screen presenting started in the 1960s and she became a household name as one of the presenters of Late Night Line Up on BBC Two between 1965 and 1972.
In the 1970s Joan worked on programmes for the BBC: Where is Your God? Who Cares, The Affirmative Way and many Holiday programmes between 1974 and 1978. Joan also starred in 4 series of ITV Granada’s pioneering Reports Action, a series that first encouraged the public to contribute goods and services to good causes.
Subsequently, she returned to the BBC, and co-presented a late-night television arts programme, briefly worked on the BBC Radio 4 PM programme, and was Newsnight’s arts correspondent (1986–88).
In the 90s Joan became the main presenter of the ethics documentary series Heart of the Matter, which she presented for 12 years.
She presented ten series of the award-winning flagship Sky Arts series Portrait Artist of the Year and Landscape Artist of the Year, initially alongside Frank Skinner and later Stephen Mangan.
Joan presented a number of Panorama programmes for BBC1 including Life at 100 looking at life as a centenarian, Our Dirty Nation and Old, Drunk and Disorderly? in which she investigated the hidden problem of alcohol abuse in older people, and The Generation Game, in which she explored the challenges ahead in caring for an ageing population.
On radio Joan presented the Radio 3 series Belief and Radio 4’s Inside the Ethics Committee for many years. She also presented two series for Classic FM, Joan Bakewell’s Lovers which explored the love lives of classical music’s great composers and performers. Other radio documentaries include the BBC Radio 4 programme on Dementia, Suppose I Lose It.
She has served on the board of the National Theatre, The Aldeburgh Festival, and Friends of the Tate, Shared Experience and also of The National Campaign for the Arts.
Joan has written many books including She’s Leaving Home, All The Nice Girls, The View From Here: Life at Seventy, Belief, The Centre of the Bed, Stop the Clocks – Thoughts on What I Leave Behind, and most recently The Tick of Two Clocks about downsizing her home and her experiences through life.
Joan has written for various national broadsheets including articles for and columns in The Times, Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph.
She was the government appointed ‘Voice of Older People’ between 2008 and 2010.
Joan was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the RTS Programme Awards 2016 and received a BAFTA Television Fellowship at the BAFTA TV Awards 2019.
Joan was made a CBE is 1999 and Dame in 2008. In January 2011 she took her seat in the House of Lords as Baroness Bakewell of Stockport. In April 2013, she became President of Birkbeck College.
The Joan Bakewell Archive is housed at the British Library. The papers can be accessed through the British Library catalogue.
